RG65 & DF65 Winter Series #2 Report & Results

A nice 6 to 8 knots straight down the lake from the clubhouse greeted the 10 sailors today for the second of the RG65 & DF65 Winter Series. There were four visitors (only 3 sailing) from Gresford who helped swell the DF65 fleet to 5 and five club Pocket Rocket’s competing in the RG65 section. Racing got underway very shortly after 12:00 with a Windward/Leeward course and separate windward marks for each fleet, well set-out by John Brierley.

In the DF65 fleet, Richard Robinson had the best day winning eight of the eleven races, with visitor David Bradley pushing him hard later in the day for two wins and the final win taken by Andrew Peter, before he had to leave early. As the light faded Richard was a clear winner on 10 points, David second on 19 and Bob Andrews (Gresford) in third, only three points ahead of Russel Owens (Gresford), who improved markedly during the day to be one of the top three at the end.

The RG65 fleet ended up being a two way fight for the top spot between Peter Baldwin and John Brierley, although both Neil Westbrook and Alan Watkinson also had spells at the front of the fleet during many of the races. At the end, Peter scraped the overall win with six firsts to John’s five, having overtaken John in the last race just30 metres to the line. A day of very close racing much of the time, with no clear indication of the “right way” up the beat and lots of guessing going on which sometimes paid off. A day that ended with only a light 3 knot breeze when a light keel seemed to pay off.

Thanks once again to Bernie for running the racing today – the last racing at Birkenhead in 2019. See you in 2020 on January 8th (DF65) or 11th (IOM)